IDENTIFY YOUR SKILL STRENGTHS FOR YOUR RESUME

Write list of all the things you can do relevant to the workplace. You need to know what you've done, and what skills you have to write a resume that will get you in the door for an interview.

Analyze the jobs you have had, both paid and unpaid. What did you do?

Then for every thing you did, write down what skills that duty involved.

What you have done that gave you a real sense of satisfaction?

If someone were to follow you through an entire week, what positive things would that person notice about what you do well and enjoy? What do people comment to you that you are good at doing? What do they ask you to help them with? What do they ask your advice on?

Check out the National Occupational Classification (you can “Google” these words, or try the O*Net site, www.onetcenter.org ) for whichever jobs you are considering.

Carefully read the job description and the skills and qualities required. Write down everything mentioned that you can honestly say you have.

Use word lists to help you identify and describe your skills.

If you were asked to list all your skills, you, like most of us, would be hard put to come up with 20, certainly 50 would be a challenge, And yet, the average person has 500 -70 skills.

Is there anything that you think “everyone can do that! That is a strong, special skills of yours, because there is nothing that “everyone” can do! You need to know what your special skills are.

How do you identify your skills?

Out of every activity you do well, you can identify skills. Make a list of them.
Why do you need to know your skills?

Your résumé should show your strongest, relevant and most marketable skills and accomplishments. They are what make you stand out in the crowd.

So work on identifying your skills, and market them front and center to employers, on your résumé, cover letter and in the interview.

What is the initial amount of time an employer takes to review an applicant’s resume?

What is the initial amount of time an employer takes to review an applicant’s resume?

Answer: 30-45 seconds

Is your resume good enough to "hook" the employer is 30 -45 seconds?

The first half of the first page is all the average employer will see when making an initial scan of your resume. Make sure it has your main attention grabbing point in it.

What do you have to offer the employer that s/he most wants? What can you do for him/her that other applicants probably can't? What special skils, experience, personal qualities do you bring? What makes you a good fit for this job/ company?

You only have one chance to make a first impression, and with your resume this first impression is created by the first half of the first page.

Make is strong.

A note on cover letters ... only 50% of employers even read your cover letter, so for those who don't, the first page of your resume is your initial introduction.

Think like an employer. What does s/he want? Do you have it? If so, tell 'em!

Avoiding repetition in your resume and cover letter

When you write your resume and cover letter, the same words keep cropping up.

I know for me, I always want to have several "excellents" and "effectives", and a few other of my favorites.

So how to avoid them?

There are several ways.

One of the most obvious is to use a Thesaurus, which is a list of other words to use to mean the same as the one you are searching.

Microsoft Word has one in the "Tools, Langauge" menu. If you highlight the word you are concerened about, it will automatically show you alternatives. Likewise, you can "Google" for an online thesaurus.

Alternatively, almost every job search book has word lists to help you. These word lists will give you other descriptive words, and also suggest action verbs to make your resume more dynamic. They can be very useful.

Again, using Google, search for "word list for resume." I just did it as I write this and a great variety of helpful sites came up.

The other time you need "new" words, is when you want to show that you have whatever a job ad is asking for.

You can't just take what the ad says and copy it into your resume and cover letter, no matter how close a match it is for you. Or at least, you can't do that if you want to be taken seriously as a job candidate.

Instead, go back to the thesaurus and find other ways to express that you have everything the ad is seeking.

That of course is not the total content of either your resume or cover letter, but it's something to bear in mind as you "tweak" your carefully prepared material for each individual position.

Your job is to show that you are an excellent fit for this position.

More help with resumes and cover letters...

Resume writing for computer jobs is a bit different than for other jobs. Find help here...

Other articles on this blog to help you are:

Cover letters to suit each job

Questions about resumes and cover letters

Resumes need action verbs

What does the employer want?

Chronological or Skills Based Resume - not sure which to use?

How do you know which resume to use? Chronological or Skills Based. And what do you do when you don't know which it best?

In general government jobs, and more conservative institutions such as banks, lawyers offices etc will probably prefer the chronological resume. Again, in general, most other jobs will accept the skills based resume.

If you are writing a skills based resume, it's easy to know what to put. Analyze what skill groupings, and what exact skills that you have will be most useful in the job for which you are applying, and write them into your resume. (More on writing a skills based resume can be found in other posts)

A chronological is a bit trickier to deal with, especially since your last job may not have been the one that highlights the skills you need for this job.

So it can be a good idea to use a combination chronological resume.

This means that instead of putting your most recent job first, you may choose to write a heading of "Relevant Employment" and list the jobs you have had, with dates etc as usual, that gave you skills and are relevant to this job for which you are now applying.

Then after that section you will have another one entitled "Other Employment" and here you will list, also in chronological order, the other jobs you have had that you did not include in "Relevant Employment."

The other trick here is, after each job title, company name and dates, put a one liner that basically covers your job duties. Then put your bulleted list of skills and accomplishments for that job immediately underneath.

A formal chronological resume will have all your job titles, companies and dates listed in reverse chronological order (ie beginning the with most recent and working back to the oldest), with, under each, just a list of job duties.

However, this is not to your advantage, since it does't display your skills.

So if you are writing a chronological resume, consider this adaptation as it gives you more chance to sell yourself, while staying within the basic chronological format.

If you would like one on one help to write your resume, I offer individual coaching, in person, or by phone.

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Resume Presentation

You can learn all you want about the best way to write content for your resume, but if it is not presented well, you may still not be on the interview list.

Paper: forget all the pretty pastels, shun any fancy or brightly coloured paper. A simple white or off white is best. If you want to go upmarket, try linen textured paper. It looks just like "regular" paper, but it has a lovely soft feel to it.

But, really, just regular 20lb copy paper is fine.

Make sure it is clean, uncrumpled and unsmudged.

Do not staple your resume. Busy employers often want to make a copy of incoming resumes, and a staple then becomes a nuisance as it has to be removed before automatic feed copying.

Do not fold your resume. Buy 9"x12" brown envelopes (very cheap in the dollar store)and use these for resumes and cover letters.

Use only one, or at the most two, fonts for the resume. You may use one for heading and another for the body. Or you can just use the same font, bolding, enlarging, or perhaps capitilization for the headings.

Your name should be the largest item on the page. Headings should all be the same size, and all body text should be the same size.

Only use italics or capitals for headings. They are more difficult to read than regular text, so should be used sparingly.

Leave lots of white space. An over crowded sheet of paper is not enticing to read. Give the employer the basic information of your skills and experience. If s/he wants to know more, s/he can invite you to an interview and ask you in person!

Remember that employers are people too, and when faced with a mountain of resumes in application for one job, they are not going to wade through anything that appears ill prepared or distasteful.

Make your resume and paper representation of yourself: professional, efficient and easy to deal with!

Need more help writing your resume?

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Fonts and Formats for your Resume

What fonts and formats you use for your resume can make quite a difference to how it is received.

Your resume is a business document and should be written as such. So use a "business" font. Times New Roman or Arial are both accepted business fonts, and if you stick to either of these you will be fine.

10 to 12 point font size is good. If your resume is rather brief for whatever reason, then 12 point will fill the page up better. If you have more to put in than you can easily fit, use a 10, or 10.5 font. Normally, I use an 11 point font.

Times New Roman is known as a "serif" font, and the serifs are the little lines at the bottom and tops of the lines in the font. Arial is known as a "sans serif" font, which means without serifs, becuase it does not have these little lines, and capital "I" for example, in Arial, is just a straight stick line with no extras.

Which you choose is mostly a matter of choice, although if you will be faxing your resume much, the clean lines of the Arial font tends to come out clearer at the other end.

If you wish you may have your heading within your resume in the which ever font you did not choose for the rest of the text. Personally, I don't like this, since when I go back to edit the resume to target it for another position, the change of fonts tends to get mixed up and I end up having to format the entire resume again for the appropriate fonts in the appropriate places. However, when done properly, it looks just fine.

No more than 2 fonts through, per resume. And make all your bullets the same. It does no make some stand out more if you choose one type of bullet for the highlights and another for the other bullets further down. It is merely distracting and fussy.

So keep your creativity for the words you put in your resume, and let the format be simple, clean and professional.

And of course, what goes for the resume, goes for the cover letter as well.

Need more help with resumes and cover letters?
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Do you feel good about your resume?

Once your resume is written up, you should feel both comfortable and good about it.

A good resume will not only outline you previous experience, but also highlight your personality and personal qualities that will make you a good employee.

If you don't feel good when you read it, something is wrong.

Does it not outline who are you, but only show what you've done for a living?

If so, it's time to think about what you, as a person, bring to the job, other than past experience and the skills developed through that.

Or do you feel uncomfortable about it because it's gone too far in outlining how wonderful you are, and you are doubtful if you can live up to it?

Either way, it needs changed.

Your resume should outline honestly who you are a person and what qualities and benefits you bring to the workplace, within the bounds of what you are comfortable living up to. But it should highlight them to an extent you look at it and feel pretty good about yourself.

Gut feeling works just as well for resumes as for anything else. Don't go on gut feeling alone, obviously, but if you are feeling not good about your resume, it needs some TLC.
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Resumes need action verbs

When you write a resume and cover letter make sure you include action verbs.

Activated, initiated, created: these are all action verbs. They state that you DID something.

Was taught, was given: these are passive verbs. They state that someone else did something and you benefited. Why should an employer be interested in you because someone else did something for you?

Here are a few more action verbs.

• accomplished
• achieved
• adoped
• adjusted
• advised
• assessed
• assisted
• attained
• audgeted
• calculated
• completed
• contributed
• decreased
• reparied
• delivered
• designed
• developed
• doubled/ tripled
• elimiated
• established
• executed
• improved
• increased
• inspected
• installed
• maintained
• obtained
• operated
• organized
• persuaded
• prepared
• proposed
• realized
• reduced
• saved
• selected
• sold
• solved
• succeeded
• upgraded
• won
• instructed
• trouble-shot
• uncovered

These are just a few to get you started. Remember employers want employees who take action themselves, not rely on others to do it for them. So use action verbs in your resume and cover letter to show the employer what you have done so s/he gets a good idea of what you can do for him or her.

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Keep your resume to one or two pages

How long should your resume be?

One or two pages.

Exceptions are:

• when someone has a great deal of relevant volunteer experience
• has written papers on their subject that are important to mention
• has the type of job where many short term projects are the norm, and consider it vital to let a potential employer know of them

In those cases, the resume should be written one or two pages as normal, and a third page added to list the extra information about the voluteer work papers or projects.

This allows the busy employer to read this resume as s/he would any others, and if it appears interesting enough for further consideration, s/he may then go on to read the third page.

The cover letter should clearly state that a third page has been added to give more detail on volunteer, papers or projects.

The third page should then be brief with headings only about each item. If the employer wants to know more s/he can invite you to an interview and ask you.

That, after all, if the goal of the resume in the first place!

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Accomplishments and Achievements: how to recall those for your resume

No-one can answer all these questions with strong stories. The idea is to read through them and answer those that fit for you and your experience, and write a short version of the story that comes to mind.

You don't need to memorize it, or write it down in detail. You just need to remember it and then afterwards think through and come up with the major skills that allowed to you do that thing.

Then in an interview, when asked about certain skills, or times when you did certain things, you will have these stories fresh in your mind.

Telling a story is powerful and gives better proof of your abilities than just a list of skills could ever do.

1. Describe a time when you proved your ability as a problem solver. What was the situation, and what was your solution?
2. Describe a time when you realized there was a need for something in a work situation, and then took the initiative to fill that need in an appropriate way.
3. Have you ever helped someone else, at work, to achieve a goal that was important to them? Tell me about it.
4. Employers love people who can save them money. Have you ever come up with an idea, or done something that saved your employer money? What was it?
5. Have you ever come up with something that saved time at work? Explain.
6. What on the job training have you found most useful. Describe it and the difference it made.
7. Have you ever received any award or recognition in the workplace, or for community service?
8. If you have had various different jobs in your life, can you explain how your next employer will benefit from this?
9. Describe a time when you took charge and showed effective leadership at work.
10. The workplace is changing rapidly and employers need employees who can accept and embrace change. Describe a time when you helped introduce something new into your place of work and the challenges that presented.
11. Tell me about time you were involved in a team, and how you contributed and what you thought about it all.
12. What is the think you are most proud of related to work, that could also be a benefit in your next job?

Create one liners from these stories to empower your resume. One story could well give you several one liners in a resume.

Here is great resume writing software to help you land an interview.

Now be willing and ready to share these stories, briefly, at your next interview.

Here is a great tool to help you ace that interview.

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What does the employer want?

How do you know what the employer is looking for? What does the employer want?

If there is a job ad, it's relatively easy as in that the employer will tell you what s/he wants.

But if there is no job ad, and you are putting together a resume to go cold calling on employers, how do you find out what they want then?

Well, one of the best ways, is to search online for jobs of the type for which you are looking. It doesn't matter where they are, you just want to find the ads, so you can see what skills and experience to highlight.

Even if you have a pretty good idea of what to put in, reading a few job ads can help you notice one or two more you hadn't thought of.

Another place to find skills and experience to highlight is in occupational classifications, which most countries, states and provinces have. However, one general site that can be used by anyone anywhere to get good information on what is involved in any specific job is the US Onet site.

This is huge site with very detailed information on a very wide variety of jobs and a good place to start looking for skills to mention in your resume.

More great resume writing help.

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Resume formats: do I write my interests in my resume?

Should you write your interests in your resume?

Answer: it depends!

If your interests are strongly connected to the position for which you are applying, or any part of that job, then yes, it's a good idea to include them if you have room. But if you're short of space, it's not that important.

If your interests have nothing to do with the type of work you want to do, in any way, shape or form, then no, do not put them in. All you might do it attract attention away from your relevant skills.

The one time your interests absolutely should be included are when you are using skils gained through them, to get this job.

Let's say I want a job working in a music store.

I have never worked in a music store, and have very little customer service experience at all. Why would they hire me?

Well, if I could put a section of "interests" in my resume in which I outline in detail what I have done that is music related: if I play instruments, sing in a choir, listen to any specific type of music, go to live band shows etc.

All of this would show not only a keen interest, but a general knowledge of the subject built up through my interest and would therefore very good to put on my resume when looking for a music related job.

So be very selective about the interests you include in your resume.

More about successful resume writing.

Looking for help with a professional resume?

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Résumés that work: include accomplishment statements

Résumés that include accomplishment statements, or the results of the work the job seeker did, get results faster.

The accomplishment shows the benefit to the employer of hiring this job seeker.

For every statement in your résumé, ask yourself the question “So what?”

So what was the benefit of this to my employer? Why would this be a worthwhile thing to have done?

Here are some phrases to get you started thinking about your accomplishments.

- Saved money
- Reduced time taken
- Improved performance
- Boosted sales
- Increased efficiency
- Enlarged customer list
- Provided excellent customer service
- Increased reliability
- Increased productivity
- Streamlined production
- Reduced costs
- Reduced waste
- Solved problems
- Took initiative

Follow these steps to create your accomplishment statements:

- Write out what you did
- Include the benefit to the employer
- Remove any unnecessary information
- Use statistics, and quantitative words wherever possible (25%, by $4000)

Here are some samples:

Increased sales by 15% in first 6 months, by instigating a regular follow-up/ call back system

Reduced customer service/ problem calls by an average of 25 per day by creating more effective one call resolution policy

Computerized all printed staff information sheets, streamlining performance and making all information instantly available to all staff

Need more help with resume writing?

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Resumes: what to put in and what not to in

What to put and what not to put in your resume

You do not have to put everything you have ever done in your resume.

The only information that belongs in your resume is information that is relevant to the job for which you are applying, and enough work history to show continuous employment, wherever possible.

You don't have to go back to when you left school, unless you are still very young.

The last ten years is all you have to put on your resume, unless previous to that you had experience which is highly relevant to the job for which you are now applying.

You do not and should not include any personal information such as your date of birth, weight, state of health (unless specifically asked, ie "must be able to lift 100 lbs."), or weight.

What you should include are all the skills that you have which make you qualified for this job.

Notice I said skills, not job duties.

To perform any job duty you use various skills. The job duties, if you are applying for a different type of work, may not be relevant, but perhaps the skills you used to do the duties are relevant.

For example: if you used to be a server in a restaurant and now you want to work as an event planner.

The job duties would seem pretty irrelevant, but the skills of being well organized, able to handle multiple tasks, meeting tight deadlines, working in a busy environment, excellent communication and people skills.... etc etc.

There are a multitude of skills a good server has that would transfer easily to the work of an event planner, but if you don't tell the employer what they are, s/he probably won't take the time to work them out.

Think about your skills. Write them down and make sure you include the relevant ones to each resume you write.

Need more help with your job search.

Great resume guide that will get you the interview.

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Your Resume: Show the employer the benefit of hiring you.

How can you show the employer the benefit of hiring you in your resume?

By including benefit statements in each line of your resume.

Change your focus from job duties to skills. So instead of writing
"Responsible for all filing",
which is a job duty, it might read something like:
"Simplified document and report retrieval by prompt and accurate filing"

From this it is understood that one of your duties must be filing, but in addition it tells us you did it well and by doing so created a benefit to your company.

The benefit of course is that you simplified document and report retrieval.

Who should use this type of resume?

Answer: Everyone.

No matter what format you use for your resume, turning duties into benefits is a positive idea that reaps great benefits for you, the job seeker!

Welcome to the Resume Blog

Welcome to the Resume Blog.

On this blog I will be writing regular tips, tactics and advice on how to prepare an resume and cover letter that will get you the interview.

There is lot more to a successful resume than a list of the jobs you have had.

And there are some great ways to attract the attention of the employer so s/he takes the next step and invites you to an interview.

Check back often. I intend to create an extremely valuable resume writing resource here for you.